Speak Up Storytelling #6: Special Storyworthy book launch episode

Episode #6 of Speak Up Storytelling is now ready for your listening pleasure.

This week's special episode features live audio from the book launch for Storyworthy: Engage, Teach, Persuade, and Change Your Life Through the Power of Storytelling.

In this episode, you'll hear me tell three BRAND NEW stories, never before told at Speak Up (and two never before told on any stage anywhere). followed by short lessons on the finding and crafting of stories. 

Next week we'll feature the second half of this book launch event, including two more BRAND NEW stories, Elysha's debut performance on ukulele, and the question-and-answer session from the evening.  

If you haven't subscribed to the podcast in Apple podcasts (or wherever you receive your podcasts), please do. And if you're not one of the 30 or so people to rate the podcast and 20 to review it in Apple Podcasts (who are the best people ever), we would love it if you did.

Ratings and reviews help listeners find our podcast easier, and it makes us feel better about ourselves and our work. 

It also makes Elysha smile. Isn't that incentive enough?

A celebration of so much more than just a book

On Saturday night, I took the stage at the release party for Storyworthy: Engage, Teach, Persuade, and Change Your Life Through the Power of Storytelling, and told five brand new stories to an audience of more than 200 friends and family.

It was quite a night. 

My friend, storyteller, and producer Erin Barker once told me never to produce a show and perform in that same show. I've been violating her rule ever since launching Speak Up five years ago, but there have been nights when I fully understood what she meant. Preparing to perform while managing the multitude of problems that can occur in the process of producing a show can be challenging.

So it shouldn't have been surprising that being the only storyteller of the night, telling five BRAND NEW stories in addition to a brief lesson after each story, is extremely difficult and mentally taxing. I've done solo shows before, many times, but never before had I taken the stage with completely new material. Stories Elysha had never even heard before. 

It was a lot to hold in my head. 

Thankfully, once I stood behind that microphone, everything quieted in my mind and I knew exactly what to do. The stories were there, just waiting for me to begin telling. 

Happily, I wasn't the only performer that evening. Andrew Mayo of Should Coulda Woulda opened the show with a reconfiguration of his band consisting of three of my former students (and his children), the parent of a former student, and the siblings of a former student. 

They were brilliant. The perfect way to begin the night. 

But the highlight of the night came when Elysha took the stage in the second half of the show and played her ukulele and sang in public for the first time.

The story that I told just before she performed was about the months following a brutal armed robbery. I was battling post-traumatic stress disorder at the time but didn't know it. I was clawing my way through life, not sleeping or eating, and oddly not able to pass from one room to another without suffering incredible fear and mortal dread. 

Then one night I found myself standing before an iron door at the bottom of a dark stairwell in an abandoned building in Brockton, MA, wondering if I could find the strength to walk through that door to the room on the other side.

I was there to compete in an underground arm wrestling tournament (crazy, I know) with the hopes of winning some money and taking one step closer to paying off a $25,000 legal bill after being arrested for a crime I did not commit. 

I found the courage to do the hard thing that night. The impossible thing, really. That was the hardest doorway I've ever walked through in my life. And even though I would continue to suffer from PTSD for the rest of my life, that doorway in the basement of that building has made every doorway since so much easier to step through. 

I wanted the audience to understand the value of doing the hard thing. I wanted them to put aside any fears that they might have. I wanted their dreams of someday to be dreams of today. I wanted them to understand that every hard, frightening, seemingly impossible thing that I have done in my life has always yielded the greatest results. 

I was terrified about taking the stage for the first time at a Moth StorySLAM in July of 2011 and telling my first story. But doing so changed my life. 

So I asked Elysha to perform for the first time that night to show people what the hard, frightening thing looks like. She's only been playing ukulele since February, and she's never sung in public or taken singing lessons. It was hard for her. Frightening. Yet she stepped through that door and was brilliant. 

Elysha performed Elvis's "Can't Help Falling in Love," and during the final chorus, the audience joined her in singing. When the song was over, everyone leapt to their feet in the loudest applause of the evening.  

I was so proud of her. I still am. 

It was a wonderful night for everyone involved. I can't thank everyone enough for the support.

We recorded the evening and will release the audio in two parts as episodes for upcoming Speak Up Storytelling podcasts so that you can hear the stories and the lessons and Elysha and everything else.

An unusual and exhausting but unforgettable weekend thanks to a July night in 2011

I'm often astounded by the places that a story told on a stage in 2011 has taken me.

This weekend I had the honor working with caregivers at Yale New Haven Hospital, teaching them how to tell stories about their own experiences as patients and the spouses, parents, and children of patients to doctors, nurses, and other clinicians in an effort to improve care. It was the second Saturday that I spent with these remarkable people, and their stories were incredibly hard to hear but so moving.

Those hours spent in a conference room at the hospital with those extraordinary people will stay with me forever.  

On Sunday I traveled to Harvard, MA to deliver the sermon on a the Harvard Unitarian Universalist Church. I told stories to the congregation and talked about the healing power of storytelling in your own life and the lives of others. Later, I taught a workshop to about 60 members of the church and members of the community who decided to join us. I met some remarkable people who are hoping to use storytelling to change their lives and the lives of people all over the world. 

Sandwiched on between those two things, Elysha and I produced a Speak Up show at Real Art Ways. Six storytellers joined me in sharing stories about hunger. For some, it was the first time they had ever told a story on stage. Others entered my life years ago through my workshops and shows, and I'm proud to call a few of them my friends today.

So, too, were members of the audience who I have only met through storytelling.

So many of my friends, and some of the best people I know, have entered my life this way.

I ended the weekend consulting with an attorney for the ACLU on his upcoming TED Talk, helping him craft an outstanding talk on subjects near and dear to my heart. Elysha and I are ALCU members, so it was an honor to assist in this important work.  

This was an unusual weekend to be sure. I'm not leading church services every Sunday or teaching a widow to tell the story of her deceased husband's hospital care. Rarely is my weekend so chock full of storytelling the way this one was. 

Frankly, it was exhausting. Also, I missed my family this weekend. A lot. 

But when I'm better rested in a day or so and I've made up for lost time with Elysha and the kids, I'll look back on this weekend and think about how lucky I am that I decided to do something back in 2011 that was hard and scared me to death. 

Budo, the protagonist of my third novel, says that "The right thing and the hard thing are often the same thing."

I try to remember this always, because I know how often embracing the hard thing has led to a weekend like this past one. 

I'm in a constant search for the next hard, right thing. 

Speak Up is two years old! It began with a snow day and a simple question to my wife.

Speak Up, the storytelling organization that my wife and I founded in 2013, is approaching it's two year anniversary. It was born on a snow day much like the one we experienced in the northeast earlier this week. 

My storytelling career began about five years ago with the discovery of The Moth’s podcast. A friend introduced it to me, and soon after, other friends began telling me that I should go to New York and tell a story. I’ve led a life filled with unusual moments and unfortunate disasters, so my friends thought The Moth would be perfect for me.

But taking the stage in New York and telling a story to 300 strangers was daunting to say the least. Frankly, I was afraid. So I assured my friends that I would go to a Moth StorySLAM someday but had no intention of ever doing so.

Then I had the idea of starting my own storytelling organization here in Hartford. I thought that telling stories in front of a handful of friends and family would be less intimidating than 300 hipster strangers in lower Manhattan. I was excited about this idea. I thought it could be something that Elysha and I did together. 

Then I didn’t do that, either.

Eventually, I couldn't look myself in the mirror. As daunting as it might be, I hated the idea of saying that I would do something and then not doing it. I resolved to go to New York, tell a story, and be done with it.  

On a hot July evening in 2011, Elysha and I went to New York. Packed into the Nuyorican Poets Café with 200 New Yorkers, I dropped my name in The Moth’s tote bag (always referred to as “the hat”), and began my storytelling career.

In truth, I dropped my name into the bag and immediately began praying that I wouldn’t be called. Putting my name into the hat at a Moth StorySLAM was good enough, I told myself. I tried. I could go home with my head held high.

And I thought my prayers were about to be answered. Nine storytellers had taken the stage, and my name had yet to be called. One more name would be drawn, and I would escape from New York unscathed.

Host Dan Kennedy opened the sheet of paper, stared intently at it for a moment, and then called my name. Except I didn’t write my name clearly, so he mispronounced it. I didn't move. If I sat very still, I thought, maybe they would pull another name, and I wouldn’t have to get up.

Then Elysha kicked me under the table. “That’s you,” she said. “Go!”  

I did. I took the stage and told my story. Dan Kennedy took a photo from the stage that night. This was my view as I told my story:

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You can actually see me in this photograph. Left side near the wall. Black shirt. White graphic. Only guy with his hands not raised. Looking terrified.

This is the story that I told:

 

When the final scores were tallied, it was revealed that I had somehow won. 

Two years later, after in February 2013, I was home with Elysha. It was a snowing outside and school had been cancelled. We were sitting at the dining room table, pounding away on our laptops. Since that first night in July, I had competed in eight more StorySLAMs. I had three more wins under my belt. I was in the midst of a streak of six wins in a row and 11 our of 14. I had competed in two Moth GrandSLAMS. I had delivered two TED Talks and told stories for Literary Death Match and The Story Collider.

The Moth had changed my life. I felt like a real storyteller. A good storyteller. I was ready for a new challenge.

I looked up from my laptop. Looked across the table at Elysha and said, "You know, we should do that storytelling idea in Connecticut. Right?"

"Yeah," she said. "We should."

A friend had mentioned that Real Art Ways might be the perfect spot for a show, so on a whim, I called. I spoke to Will Wilkins, Real Art Ways’ Executive Director. "Well, it's snowing today," he said. "No one's here. Why don’t you come down now?"

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I did. About an hour later, Speak Up (still without a name or any storytellers save myself) was born. Will had given us the date for our first show and suggested that we find a name for our organization as soon as possible. Good advice. That would come about a week later on a ride home from Elysha’s parents house. While brainstorming ideas, I said, “How about using an imperative. A command. Something like Speak Up?”

“That’s it,” Elysha said. “Speak Up.”

We had found our name. 

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Our first show, in April of 2013, featured eight storytellers. All friends who we knew could tell a good story. We didn’t listen to their stories beforehand or work with storytellers back then (and thus had two stories about trips to Greece told back-to-back), so every story was as much of a surprise to us as the audience. That was fun. We’ve since learned that it makes for a better show when we take the time to listen to our storytellers’ stories and help them with their fine tuning. We’ve learned a lot in the three years that I have been telling stories, so we share this wisdom with our storytellers before they take the stage. 

When we arrived at Real Art Ways that night, the woman in charge asked us how many chairs to put out.

“Well, we have about eight storytellers,” Elysha said. “And they will all probably bring a guest. And we might get a few more people might come. So maybe 40?”

The woman laughed. “We’ll put out 90.”

Good thing she did. We had a standing room only crowd of about 125 people that first night, and we have been selling out shows ever since. There were about 250 people at our last show, and I didn’t know most of them. In those early days, our audiences were primarily our friends. Now some of our most devoted fans are people who I have never actually met.

We’ve produced 12 shows in the two years that we have been running Speak Up. We have established partnerships with The Mount in Lenox, Massachusetts, Kingswood Oxford School in West Hartford, and just this week, The Connecticut Historical Society. Speak Up will be featured at this year’s Connecticut Storytelling Festival. We run workshops for people who are interested in telling stories, and I have taught classes on storytelling in libraries, high schools, colleges, and universities, including most recently Perdue University and The University of Connecticut Law School.     

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I had no idea that all of this would happen when I peeked over my laptop and said to Elysha that “we should do that storytelling thing in Connecticut.” But our lives have changed completely and forever because of it.

It's a good reminder that the best way to start something is to start something. Think less. Move fast. Figure things out along the way. And find a good partner.

I meet far too many people with big dreams and grand ambitions who spend too much time worrying about how to make them happen instead of making them happen.

Move. Create forward momentum. Take a risk.

Three years ago, I dreamed of telling a story on a Moth stage. Today I am a storyteller. Life can change quickly if you give it a chance.

Three years ago today, I wrote a post asking for readers to vote on a story pitch that I had submitted to The Moth via their website.

I wrote:

The opportunity to tell a story for The Moth is a big deal to me. So if you have a moment, please click over to The Moth’s website and vote for my story (if you think it worthy) by clicking on the stars beside the story itself.  Rating my story pitch will also register one vote for me.

This represented my cowardly attempt to tell a story for The Moth. Even though I lived close enough to New York City to compete in a StorySLAM by simply dropping my name into a hat, I was desperately attempting to avoid taking the stage and being assigned a numerical score for my performance.

It’s amazing to see how quickly your life can change when you decide to face your fear. Less than a month after pitching that story on The Moth’s website, I decided to stop acting like a coward and went to New York City with my wife to tell a story.

When we arrived at the Nuyorican’s Poets Café, I placed my name in the hat and immediately prayed that it wouldn’t be drawn. When it was, I stayed in my seat for a moment, hoping that the host, Dan Kennedy, might become impatient and choose another name instead. Then Elysha told me to get out of my seat and on the stage.

I did. This is what I saw. 

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I told a story about pole vaulting in high school. When the scores were tallied, I was astounded to discover that I had won.

I had become a storyteller.

This victory led me to my first GrandSLAM, where I competed against nine other StorySLAM winners. I placed third that night. I met two storytellers on that stage who I am proud to call my friends today.

My life has changed profoundly since the night I took that stage less than three years ago.

I have gone on to tell stories at 22 Moth StorySLAMs in New York and Boston. I have won 11 of them.

I’ve told stories at six Moth GrandSLAMs and placed a frustrating second in four of them.

I’ve told stories at two Moth Main Stage shows.

I’ve gone on to tell stories for other storytelling organizations like The Mouth, The Story Collider, Literary Death Match, and more. I’ve delivered talks at three TED conferences throughout New England. I’ve been hired to deliver speeches for a variety of reasons. 

Last year my wife and I founded Speak Up, a Hartford-based storytelling organization. Since then, we have produced six shows at Real Art Ways in Hartford. All have been sell outs.

We now teach storytelling workshops to people who want to become storytellers for a variety of reasons. Other venues throughout New England have reached out to us, asking us to consider bringing our show to them.

When someone asks me where I see myself in five years, I laugh. If you’re wiling to say yes to opportunities, as frightening or silly or impossible as they may seem, your life will change constantly.

The future will be impossible to predict. 

Three years ago, I was a guy who wanted to tell one story on one Moth stage. Someday. 

Today, storytelling has become an enormous part of my life.

It’s incredible to think that just three years ago, I was staring a website, asking friends and family to vote for my story, hoping that someone at The Moth would like my pitch enough to choose me.

Life can change fast if you give it a chance.

Speak Up storyteller: Lynelle Abel

Our next Speak Up storytelling event is on Saturday, May 17th at Real Art Ways in Hartford. Doors open at 7:00 PM. The show begins promptly at 8:00 PM.

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There are still some tickets available, though we are expecting a sell out, so purchase them now before it’s too late. Tickets available here.

This week we introduce the storytellers who you will be hearing from on Saturday night. Hope to see you there!
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Lynelle Abel is a blue collar girl at heart and finds that her best stories come from her small town roots. She credits her keen interest in storytelling to her mother and her 7 brothers and sisters. They are the consummate story tellers – and have shaped Lynelle’s life in indescribable ways through their stories of resilience and humor in the face of incredible hardships.

Lynelle is proud of her not so picture perfect childhood – and while she and her husband went through great lengths to provide a more wholesome life for their two sons – she secretly hopes they are creating their own life stories filled with interesting people, happenings and experiences they’ve had along their journey through life. She can’t wait to hear some of their law and order stories when they are ready to disclose them…

Lynelle holds a master’s degree in Industrial and Organizational psychology and in her now adult white collar world; works as the director of Volunteer Services for Yale-New Haven Hospital and feels genuinely blessed to witness daily the extraordinary acts of kindness from ordinary people.

Speak Up storytelling: Risa Sugarman

Our next Speak Up storytelling event is on Saturday, May 17th at Real Art Ways in Hartford. Doors open at 7:00 PM. The show begins promptly at 8:00 PM.

There are still some tickets available, though we are expecting a sell out, so purchase them now before it’s too late. Tickets available here.

This week we introduce the storytellers who you will be hearing from on Saturday night. Hope to see you there!
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Risa Sugarman is a West Hartford transplant via Boston and New York City. She loves writing and has published articles on Kveller.com and on her own blog: sillyillymama.blogspot.com. She’s also been published on the Huffington Post. Risa is very open about her struggle with depression and has a passion for combating the stigma of mental illness.

She has a BA in sociology from Columbia University and an MSW from Fordham University. Her past includes working with children in clinical settings as well as writing curricula and conducting trainings. She lives in West Hartford with her wonderful husband and her sparkly daughter.

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Speak Up storyteller: Doreen Stern

Our next Speak Up storytelling event is on Saturday, May 17th at Real Art Ways in Hartford. Doors open at 7:00 PM. The show begins promptly at 8:00 PM.

There are still some tickets available, though we are expecting a sell out, so purchase them now before it’s too late. Tickets available here.

This week we introduce the storytellers who you will be hearing from on Saturday night. Hope to see you there!
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Doreen Stern holds a Ph.D. in public policy and two master’s degrees. She’s been a researcher at UConn and the University of Pennsylvania, a sales and marketing consultant for a Fortune 500 company, and director of New Hampshire’s largest child care program. And before that, she was co-director of the Sivananda Yoga Center in Washington, D.C.

Wanting to improve her public speaking skills, Doreen joined Toastmasters in 2005. Since then, she’s delivered 63 speeches through Toastmasters and another 50 at businesses and libraries, speaking on “Change Your Life in 17 Minutes.” People describe her as funny and revealing.

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Speak Up storyteller: Robin Gelfenbien

Our next Speak Up storytelling event is on Saturday, March 29th at Real Art Ways in Hartford.

Doors open at 7:00 PM. The show begins promptly at 8:00 PM.

There are still some tickets available, though we are expecting a sell out, so purchase them now before it’s too late. Tickets available here.

This week we introduce the storytellers who you will be hearing from on Saturday night.

Hope to see you there!
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Robin Gelfenbien has written jokes for emcee Rosie O’Donnell at The Matrix Awards where featured presenters included Martha Stewart, Rupert Murdoch and Hillary Rodham Clinton. Her original comedy songs have played on Sirius Satellite Radio and The Wiseguy Show hosted by Vinny “Big Pussy” Pastore. She’s been on VH1’s “Awesomely Badder Videos,” AMC’s “Liza Life Coach” with Cheri O’Teri, and she starred in a commercial directed by Spike Lee.

Her critically-acclaimed solo show, “My Salvation Has a First Name (A Wienermobile Journey)” premiered at the New York International Fringe Festival. As a storyteller, Robin has performed at The Moth, RISK!, Mortified, and she is the creator of the monthly storytelling series, “Yum’s the Word,” that features her homemade ice cream cakes. She also created the web series “Auntie, Do Tell” with her 72 year-old aunt, she's been featured in Marie Claire magazine, and she writes for Huffington Post Comedy. www.robingelfenbien.com. @robingelfenbien

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Speak Up!

Tickets for our upcoming Speak Up storytelling show on March 29 at Real Art Ways in Hartford are now on sale through the Real Art Ways website. If you plan on coming to the show, please order your tickets soon as they will likely sell out well in advance of the show.

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The theme of the night is Law and Order. We have a fabulous lineup of storytellers for you with some amazing, amusing and hair raising tales.

In the coming weeks, we will be featuring our storytellers here and on our Speak Up Facebook page.

Tickets can be ordered here.

Speak Up storytelling workshops

After reviewing the results from the survey conducted at our most recent Speak Up storytelling event, it became clear that there is a strong interest in the possibility of storytelling workshops.

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But we also know that checking off a box on a survey is easy, so we’ve done some planning and come up with a program that we believe would work, so now we are wondering if there is still interest.

Here is how the program would look:

Six workshops over the course of six weeks, each lasting about 90 minutes.

A limit of 8 participants in each workshop. 

During these workshops, instruction would focus on the skills and strategies required for both the development and delivery of effective stories, as well as the generation of story ideas. Workshops would include whole group and individual instruction. As a part of the process, each participant would develop at least one story for an eventual performance.

Following the completion of the workshops, participants would have the opportunity to tell their story in a smaller version of one of our Speak Up shows. This would be hosted by Real Art Ways in the smaller of the two gallery spaces where our first Speak Up event was held back in May. The show would be free and open to invitees of the workshop and Real Art Ways members. Our goal is to provide a low-stakes environment where participants can give storytelling a try for the first time.

Ideally, these storytellers would then go on to perform at a future Speak Up event if they so choose.  

The cost of the workshop would be $150-$200 depending upon costs.

The first workshops would likely take place in January of 2014.

Our hope is to begin to build a vibrant and active community of storytellers here in the Hartford area who could tell stories at our events as well as other storytelling opportunities here in Connecticut and abroad. 

If you’re interested, please email speakupstorytelling@gmail.com.

A recap of this weekend’s Speak Up event, plus an update on the future of Speak Up

Thanks to everyone who came out to Speak Up on Saturday night. The event was an enormous success, with an enthusiastic, standing-room only audience of more than 200 people.

Real Art Ways decided to move our show into a much larger space for this most recent event, and for the weeks leading up to the show, Elysha and I were nervous that we wouldn’t have enough people in attendance to fill it. Doors were supposed to open at 7:00 on Saturday night but by 6:50, every seat was filled and people were finding places along walls and dragging benches into the space to create seating.

We couldn't have been more thrilled. Or relieved. Thank you for the support.

Many thanks to our storytellers as well, who were amazing.

Julie Threlkeld told us a terrific story about finding her first college roommate.

Bill Wynne told us a story of how a boy from New Jersey became an award-winning Hawaiian singer.

Charly Weiss reminded us that even after more than a decade of teaching, teachers can still learn a lot from their students.

LB Muñoz told a powerful and tragic story of how the loss of a friend changed her life forever. 

Trish Milnamow told us a story about her lifelong battle with nicotine addiction.

Barbara Klau offered us a hilarious and poignant view of what it is like to grow older in a world filled with body piercing, tattoos and more.

Okey Ndibe regaled us with amusing and thought-provoking stories about Nigerian culture shock in America.

It was truly a spectacular show. 

If you weren’t able to make the show, our next event is November 9 at Real Art Ways, and while our lineup of storytellers is not entirely settled yet, the storytellers who we have booked so far are fantastic.

If you would like to pitch us a story for the November 9 event, you have until Friday to do so. Email your pitch and your bio to speakupstorytelling@gmail.com.

We’re considering a couple of possible changes to Speak Up that we would like you to consider and comment on if you have an opinion:

1. Our first two shows were free, but we are considering charging an small admission price to future Speak Up events. The proceeds from this admission would be used to:

  • pay for advertising and promotion
  • cover our costs for each event
  • pay for the design and construction of a website dedicated to Speak Up (rather than the Facebook page which we now operate)
  • Pay for the production of a podcast where these stories could be later broadcast for people who are unable to attend an event
  • Help to cover some of the costs that Real Art Ways incurs for each show

If you have an opinion on what that admission cost should be, we would love to hear from you.

2. Based upon feedback, we are considering moving the start time from 7:00 to 7:30 or 8:00 in order to allow people to eat dinner before the show.  If you have thoughts on this, please let us know.

3. I am considering teaching 6-week storytelling workshop to help build the storytelling community in the Hartford area and give storytellers the skills and confidence to take the stage and tell a story of their own someday. The workshop would culminate in a storytelling event in which the participants would have an opportunity to perform in front of an audience of their friends and family. If you might be interested in a workshop like this, please let me know.

Thanks again for all the support, and we hope to see you on November 9th!

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Speak Up storyteller: Okey Ndibe

On Saturday, Elysha and I will be producing our next Speak Up storytelling event at Real Art Ways in Hartford, CT. The theme of the evening is Schooled: Lessons Taught and Lessons Learned.

Doors open at 7:00. Stories begin at 7:30. The event is free, and no ticket is required.

Eight storytellers will take the stage and tell true stories on the assigned theme. During this week, we will be featuring each storyteller here in order to give you a peek at what to expect on Saturday night.

We hope to see you there! 

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Okey Ndibe is a former Fulbright Scholar and currently a visiting professor of Africana literature at Brown University. He earned an MFA and PhD from UMass, Amherst.

He is the author of the novels foreign gods, inc. and Arrows of Rain. He also co-edited a book titled Writers, Writing on Conflicts and Wars in Africa. Since 1999,

Okey has written a column on Nigeria's political, social and cultural affairs that is widely syndicated by Nigerian newspapers and numerous websites. His unsparing stance against official corruption in Nigeria earned me inclusion on a government list of “enemies of the state.”

A widely traveled lecturer and raconteur in Nigeria, Okey frequently give lectures and readings in Africa, Europe, and on college campuses in the US and Canada. In 2010, the Nigerian Peoples Parliament elected him as speaker.

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Speak Up storyteller: Trish Milnamow

On Saturday, Elysha and I will be producing our next Speak Up storytelling event at Real Art Ways in Hartford, CT. The theme of the evening is Schooled: Lessons Taught and Lessons Learned.

Doors open at 7:00. Stories begin at 7:30. The event is free, and no ticket is required.

Eight storytellers will take the stage and tell true stories on the assigned theme. During this week, we will be featuring each storyteller here in order to give you a peek at what to expect on Saturday night.

We hope to see you there!

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Trish Milnamow is a writer and storyteller. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from The City College of New York. Her work explores issues of class, gender and resiliency.

She has been published in the Philadelphia Daily News, The Promethean, and Poetry in Performance and has participated in poetry readings and storytelling shows. In addition, she writes screenplays with her writing partner.

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Speak Up storyteller: Charly Weiss

On Saturday, Elysha and I will be producing our next Speak Up storytelling event at Real Art Ways in Hartford, CT. The theme of the evening is Schooled: Lessons Taught and Lessons Learned.

Doors open at 7:00. Stories begin at 7:30. The event is free, and no ticket is required.

Eight storytellers will take the stage and tell true stories on the assigned theme. During this week, we will be featuring each storyteller here in order to give you a peek at what to expect on Saturday night.

We hope to see you there!

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Charly Weiss recently fulfilled her lifelong dream to become a “Nutmegger” by moving to Connecticut from Massachusetts, where she taught elementary school for 14 years. During that time, she has taught over 250 children how to read, created a science program designed to provide supplemental science instruction after school, and through a mixture of witchcraft and science, brought a dead iguana back to life.

Currently she is the unpublished author of several children’s books, an avid runner and swimmer, a Little League coach and a Mom. She lives in Guilford with her husband Larry and 2 rambunctious little boys, ages 5 and 3.

Speak Up storyteller: Bill Wynne

On Saturday, Elysha and I will be producing our next Speak Up storytelling event at Real Art Ways in Hartford, CT. The theme of the evening is Schooled: Lessons Taught and Lessons Learned.

Doors open at 7:00. Stories begin at 7:30. The event is free, and no ticket is required.

Eight storytellers will take the stage and tell true stories on the assigned theme. During this week, we will be featuring each storyteller here in order to give you a peek at what to expect on Saturday night.

We hope to see you there! 

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Bill Wynne is Director of New Product Development for a not-for-profit educational products and research organization.

Born and raised in Philadelphia, PA, Wynne is an avid reader, an occasional writer and enjoys home remodeling.

He is also an award-winning singer and multi-instrumentalist specializing in the traditional music of the islands of Hawaii. Bill currently lives in Ewing, New Jersey with his wife, Cherylann, and their two children - a dog, Vannah, and a cat, Samantha.

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Speak Up storyteller: Julie Threlkeld

On Saturday, Elysha and I will be producing our next Speak Up storytelling event at Real Art Ways in Hartford, CT. The theme of the evening is Schooled: Lessons Taught and Lessons Learned.

Doors open at 7:00. Stories begin at 7:30. The event is free, and no ticket is required.

Eight storytellers will take the stage and tell true stories on the assigned theme. During this week, we will be featuring each storyteller here in order to give you a peek at what to expect on Saturday night.

We hope to see you there! 

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Julie Threlkeld performs frequently in NYC in live shows like Ask Me Stories, Talk Therapy Storytelling and the RISK! Show – whose creator and host, Kevin Allison, describes her stories as providing "the meat in a sandwich of bleak." She also performs standup comedy.

Julie has written about anxiety for the New York Times’ Opinionator and about the world of professional distance running for Runner's World and Running Times.

Julie lives in Westchester Country, NY and is very active in NYC's rapidly growing storytelling scene. She publishes her stories, performances and other creations at modernstories.com and publishes a weekly newsletter of resources for storytellers at modernstoriesstuff.com. She also tweets A LOT at@juliethrelkeld.

For money Julie is a freelance copywriter/editor, content strategist and social media doer. Future creative plans include more oversharing in storytelling, possibly in the form of a longer work consisting of interconnected stories on a theme.

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Want to tell a story at the next Speak Up?

We have some exciting news for you in regards to our upcoming Speak Up storytelling events.

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First, in case you haven’t marked your calendars, our next two events will take place on Saturday, September 28 and Saturday, November 9 at Real Art Ways in Hartford, Connecticut. Both events begin at 7:00 PM.

The format for the upcoming events consists of 8 storytellers who will each have up to 8 minutes to tell their stories on an assigned theme.

The theme for the upcoming shows are as follows:

The theme of the September 28 event is Schooled: Lessons Taught and Lessons Learned.

The theme for the November 9 event is Holidays and Celebrations.

Both events will be curated, meaning that we will be choosing storytellers who we believe are especially suited for each of these events, but we are looking to expand beyond our own circle of storytellers and invite newcomers to the stage for these events as well.

Here’s how it works:

For the next two Speak Up events, we hope to invite 2-4 newcomers to the stage to tell a story. If you would like to be one of these people, you need to send us an email describing the story you would like to tell. Tell us as much about the story as you’d like, but the more information we have, the easier it will be for us to make a decision.

If you have public speaking experience or any other qualities that make you an excellent choice for a Speak Up event, please include this information as well. We are anticipating a large response based upon feedback that we have received so far, so sell your story and yourself to us. Don’t be afraid to brag a bit. 

Please include a telephone number along with the description of your story as well. After we review all of the submissions, we will call back a handful of potential storytellers to discuss your story and ask any questions that we still have before making our final decision.

All we ask from you is a couple things:

  1. If you’re not chosen for either of the two next events, please don’t give up. Pitch us a story again for a future event. We may simply not have room for the response that we receive. 

  2. Please don’t be mean, rude or cruel to us if you are not chosen for an upcoming event. We have always envisioned Speak Up as a curated show made up of a combination of handpicked storytellers and new voices, but our ultimate goal is to ensure an entertaining night for our audience. Our decisions in terms if who will perform will be made with the audience in mind at all times. We are also not perfect. We may pass over the greatest storyteller of all time. Please excuse our imperfection. 

If you wish to submit your story for consideration, send an email to speakupstory@gmail.com.

The deadline for the September show is Saturday, August 24.

The deadline for the November show is Saturday, October 5.

We look forward to hearing about your stories and seeing you at our upcoming events!

Another Speak Up date added to the calendar

Please mark your calendars! Again!

Our next Speak Up storytelling event is on Saturday, September 28 at 7:00 PM at Real Art Ways in Hartford, CT. The theme of the night is Schooled: Lessons Taught and Lessons Learned.

This week we added Saturday, November 9 to the calendar for our third storytelling event. Same time and same place.

The theme of the night has yet to be determined.

Our goal is to produce 4-6 shows a year.  

Speak Up is an evening of storytelling open to the general public. Eight storytellers will take the stage to tell true stories on an assigned theme. Each storyteller has an 8 minute time limit and will tell their story without the use of notes. This is a curated show, meaning that my wife and I choose the storytellers for each event.

Our goal is to handpick about half of the storytellers for each event from a stable of storytellers who we already know and choose the other half from new storytellers who will have the opportunity to pitch their stories to us.

If you’re interested in pitching us a story, stay tuned. The process will be explained shortly once everything is in place.

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Speak Up date announced!

Please mark your calendars!

Our next Speak Up storytelling event will take place on Saturday, September 28 at 7:00 PM at Real Art Ways in Hartford, CT.

We are currently in the process of deciding if we want to change the format in any way. One thought is to add a storyteller to the program so that we have eight in all. Four before intermission and four after intermission.

We are also considering reducing the recommended time allotted to storytellers from ten minutes to eight minutes. As a storyteller myself and one who plans on telling a story that night, ten minutes is much more appealing than eight, but I also know that when you reduce the time allotted for storytellers, their stories tend to only get better.

Editing is a painful but powerful process.

This reduction in time will also allow us to better accommodate one more storyteller into the program.

If you have any thoughts about these proposed changes, please let us know.

In the next month or two, we will be releasing the theme of the evening and guidelines that will explain how to pitch a story to us. While we plan on inviting storytellers who we know to perform that night, we also plan on opening up the event to new storytellers as well.   

Lastly, if you attended our first event and took any photographs, could you please send them along to us? We have an audio recording of the evening that we will podcast as soon as that’s possible, but we have no images from our event. We’d love to get our hands on some if possible.

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